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The Gifted Finale Perfectly Sets Up the X-Men's MCU Debut

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for The Gifted Season 2 finale.

When The Gifted concluded its second season, the beleaguered Mutant Underground didn't get to walk off into the sunset. After suffering the devastating loss of Reed von Strucker, the team was confronted by a new dilemma. Clarice "Blink" Fong, thought dead, returned for a cliffhanger ending with a warning and a newfound mastery over her powers. It's this ending that, despite what may be "Days of Future Past" aspirations, would make a perfect lead-in for the mutants to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

After a two-episode absence, Clarice came back to the series a changed woman. When she reappeared, her life-threatening injuries from "calaMity" had completely healed. Her hair was longer, she wore a silver top with a matching necklace and carried two dart-like devices in her hand. What's more, she appeared to create portals with ease, though she had struggled with her powers and her mutant identity over the first two seasons of the show. This indicated a serious passage of time, suggesting she had come to them from the future.

Bypassing any form of greeting, she told her stunned teammates that "Something has happened... I need you all to come with me. There's something you need to see." She then disappeared back through her portal, into a darkness punctuated only by burning fires. However, she didn't elaborate on what that "something" was, leaving it open to interpretation and setting up a potential third season (though the show hasn't yet been renewed).

With Disney acquiring Fox, thus bringing the X-Men franchise into the MCU fold, the status of Fox's Marvel projects is up in the air. While FX's Legion will come to its planned conclusion with Season 3, The Gifted's future remains unclear. The likeliest course of action will be that the X-Men-based series will be cancelled, allowing the MCU to launch its X-Men properties with a blank slate. However, if the MCU were to work in Fox's existing X-Men properties, Clarice's Season 2 cliffhanger sets up the perfect way for The Gifted's characters to transition over to the new universe.

After all, in the comics, Blink frequently travels between dimensions. As a member of the Exiles team, she bounces from dimension to dimension, helping to solve each universe's unique problems. Indeed, this has been the character's legacy for years, starting shortly after the Earth-295 version of her was introduced in 1995's X-Men: Alpha #1 by Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, Roger Cruz and Steve Epting.

As such, it would absolutely sync up with Clarice's character if she has been traveling through the multiverse since she disappeared in "calaMity." The portal she opened in the Season 2 finale could easily lead to another dimension -- perhaps even the MCU. If the show gave Clarice the ability to portal through alternate universes, she could pave the way for these characters to make their way to the MCU proper. In that, The Gifted would become a parallel universe or alternate timeline, both of which are conventions frequently used in the comics that could explain away the different continuities.

Will Clarice lead her The Gifted compatriots to the MCU through her portal? Probably not. Nevertheless, it certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility, and it's fun to speculate how the MCU will introduce the X-Men's merry mutants. Hopefully, The Gifted's Mutant Underground will return in some form or fashion, if only to explain Clarice's urgent mission at the end of the Season 2 finale. For now, though, we'll just have to wait.